Orchard heater



c. YAWMAN, JR

ORCHARD HEATE Filed Aug. 51 19 Z! Ki ,2;

Patented Aug. 17, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ORCHARD HEATERCharles F. Yawman, Jr., Ontario, Calif. Application August 31, 1950,Serial No. 182,509

7 Claims. 1 My invention relates to a burner for liquid fuel and isintended particularly for use in orchard heaters, although capable ofuse for various other purposes.

One drawback of many orchard heaters which use liquid fuel consists inthe fact that their fuel supply must be replenished, preferably in thedaytime, but sometimes at night, as when there is a shortage of labor orof fuel. A factor that makes this work dangerous as well as disagreeableis the fact that the clothing of workers becomes soaked with oil, whichis not only cold to the wearer but all too frequently becomes ignitedand gives rise to dangerous burns and sometimes to fatal burns. It hasbeen proposed to install a system of burners that are connected by pipelines to a common source of supply, but the cost of installation andupkeep of such a system is so high as to be almost prohibitive, thepipes interfere with various necessary horticultural operations, and ingeneral such schemes have not proved satisfactory. Even with suchsystems, their operation is improved by use of a burner as hereindisclosed, since their operation is made more practical and effectivedue to the automatic regulation within the self-contained burner units.

It is an object of my invention to provide orchard heaters that can beplaced sufliciently close together to protect an orchard against anyordinary freeze and, in fact, to protect most orchards even against agreat freeze such as may be expected only once in about seven to tenyears, but which can hold suflicient fuel to burn through even theentire night if necessary, without exhaustion of fuel.

Another object is to provide orchard heaters that are simple andinexpensive to manufacture, requiring little attention and little or noupkeep during their useful life.

Another object is to provide a liquid fuel burner that shall beself-regulating in that the supply of fuel is reduced or cut off if toolarge a supply of gas is being formed.

Another object is to provide a liquid fuel burner that shall beefficient in consumption of fuel, leaving very little, if any,non-consumable residue and being smokeless, or substantially so, in itsoperation.

Referring to the annexed drawings, which are made a part of thisapplication, and in which similar reference characters indicate similarparts:

Fig. l is an elevation of the device of my invention, partly in section,

Fig. 2 is a section on line 2-2 of Fig. 1,

Figure 3, a section on line 3-3 of Fig. l, and

Fig. 4, a section of a float valve shown in Fig. 1.

In the drawings, reference character it indicates a tank, supported onlegs H and provided, at a convenient height for refilling, with a lid l2hinged to the tank at it. A conduit M leads down from the tank to theouter end of a tubular retort l5. Preferably the conduit It consists oftwo pipe sections I! and It and section I! is provided with a manuallyoperable valve it, e. g., a needle valve or the like, for shutting offthe supply of fuel. In a descending portion of the pipe there isprovided a float valve (Fig. 4) between the two pipe sections ll and It,said valve comprising a casing 19 providing a chamber for a ball 28which is preferably of durable material, such as metal of suitable sizeand weight, and a seat at Z! in the top of the chamber. The pressure ofthe gas formed in the retort will lift the ball and should keep it nearthe top of the valve chamber, so that the flow of liquid fuel to theretort is automatically regulated by the floating action of the ballriding on the liquid fuel.

The retort i5 is formed as a substantially annular tube extending aboutthe interior of a frustoconical shroud 22 near the upper end of saidshroud and has adjacent its outlet end an arm 23 extending radiallyinward approximately to the center of the shroud, said arm beingconnected to the spiral body of the retort by a downwardly extendingportion 23'. The shroud is flared upwardly somewhat from its smallerlower end to its larger upper end to provide space for expansion of thecontained hot air and gas. It is supported on a pan 24 by legs 25 whichspace it from the pan to permit entrance of air at the lower end of theshroud.

The retort is supplied at the inner end of arm 23 with a plug 26 for useas a clean-out device at the end of the season or at other times asneeded. The pipe portions 23 and 23 serve as a trap for non-consumableresidues or other foreign material.

A baffle 21 which is spiral as seen in plan is supported from the retortby means of brackets 28, 28 that engage over parts of the retort andhave depending legs secured to the baffle. The baffle, which may be madeof sheet metal or the like, is preferably bent so as to encircle theaxis of the shroud in spaced relation to the trap 23, 23 and extendingupward from the.level of the same. At its outer end the bafiie extendsnearly to the outlet port of a nozzle 29 in such residual liquid fuelissuing from port 29 by mixing flame back into flame and maintaining ahigh temperature for complete gasification at this point. Air enters thelower end of the heater at the space between pan 2'3 and the lowermargin of the shroud, and hot air passes upward out of the shroud inobvious manner. The depending parts 23 and 23' provide space forcollection of any residues, and keep them out of the way of the gaspassing to the outlet of nozzle 29, so as to prevent interference withthe feed to said port.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many changes may bemade in the device herein disclosed, all without departing from thespirit of the invention; and, therefore, I do not limit myself to whatis shown in the drawings and described in the specification, but only asindicated in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. An orchard heater comprising a shroud having a circular wall about anupright axis, a tubular retort within said wall and parallel thereto,means for supplying liquid fuel to said retort, an outlet nozzleconnected with said retort, and a bafiie having its leading edgepositioned to split a jet issuing from said nozzle, said baffle beingsubstantially concentric with said shroud to provide therewithconcentric whirling currents of flame within the shroud.

2. A device as in claim 1, including a downward terminal extension onthe retort for collection of non-consumable residues, a drainage port onsaid extension, and a plug for the port.

3. An orchard heater comprising a liquid fuel burner having an outershroud formed as an inverted frustuin of a cone mounted on a verticalaxis, an annular tubular retort in said shroud and substantiallyconcentric therewith, means for supplying liquid fuel to said retort, anoutlet nozzle for said retort, and a baffle substantially concentricwith said shroud, said bafile having a leading edge positioned to splitthe jet of gasified fuel issuing from said nozzle into vortical innerand outer currents.

4. An orchard heater comprising an upright shroud having a circularwall, a conduit for liquid fuel, said conduit having a body portionspaced inwardly from said wall and approximately concentric therewithand forming a retort for gasifying the fuel, a sheet metal baflie belowthe retort, said bailie having a portion approximately coaxial with theretort, an outlet nozzle for said retort, said nozzle being sopositioned with reference to the leading edge of the baflle as tosplitthe jet of gasified fuel issuing from the nozzle into inner and outerwhirling currents, substantially as set forth.

5. A device as in claim 4, including a pan fixed to the shroud in spacedrelation to the lower end of the same, so as to admit air to the burner.

6. A device as in claim 4, wherein the conduit includes a downwardlyextending terminal portion, an end portion extending from said dependingportion to the axis of the shroud for collecting non-consumable residuesand a drainage ping in said last-named conduit portion.

7. A device as in claim 6, and a pan spaced from the shroud and fixedthereto for receiving the unconsumed drainage from the retort.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 597,028 Serpollet Jan. 11, 1898 688,765 White Dec. 10, 1901765,985 McLeod July 26, 1904 40 976,898 McQuerry et al. Nov. 29, 19101,269,192 Kahn June 11, 1918 1,558,148 Demyanovich Oct. 20, 19252,016,002 Fugit Oct. 1, 1935 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 14,164Great Britain 1908 233,906 Great Britain May 21, 1925 444,632 GreatBritain Mar. 17, 1936

